Since my Rotterdam Marathon for April 5th was canceled, and since I have trained for over a half year for this, I decided that I was going to run a marathon anyway and so marked out a 42K path that starts at the Jüterbog train station, follows for the most part a paved rollerblade path out into the country, through Bochow, Markendorf and a few other little villages, and then ends right back at the train station in Jüterbog.

Hannah said she wanted to come with me and ride her bike, which turned out to not only be appreciated but essential in that after my water ran out at 25K (Hannah and I both had only a 1-liter water bag each in our back packs which we consumed by 20K and 25K respectively), Hannah kept handing me fruit that she was luckily carrying in her back pack, apples, plums and grapes, which I was able to suck some liquids out of. And psychologically to have someone with you during a solo marathon is at least comforting, especially after 35K.

The train connection from Berlin to Jüterbog is direct and unproblematic. We got the 08:46 regional train RE3 from Lichterfelde Ost and stepped out into Jüterbog in less than 40 minutes. Since I wanted to symbolically start right at 10:00 when the Rotterdam Marathon would have started that day, we had a half hour to experience the Bahnhof milieu which had kind of a ghost town aura to it. If a train is not coming in the 15 minutes there really seems to be human life at the train station whatsoever, the main building being locked and boarded up.

When 10:00 came, we lined up at the starting line in front of the train station, and Hannah blasted on her backpack speaker this video we found from the start of the 2012 Berlin Marathon. If you've ever run the Berlin Marathon or a major race in Berlin, you'll remember this start music. I think it's directly connected to the production of adrenalin.

Within 1K we were on the rollerblade track which we would stay on the next 39 kilometers before getting off and running through town back to the train station.

Right after we started, I learned in our Whatsapp family group that Gisi had gone on a 16K run at 10:00 back in Berlin, and Karla had taken a walk as well, so as a family we covered over 100 kilometers that day walking, running, or biking in one day, certain a record for us.

Hannah was on her bike in front of me navigating the path in Google Earth along the KMZ file route that I had made, and it turned out to be easier than we thought. This is an official roller blade trail, paved the whole way, and at most turns there are well-positioned and obvious signs which tell you where to go next.

However, right after 6K, the smooth, paved path continues on straight and we missed the small signs that indicated that if you wanted to stay on the official roller blade trail, to turn left, cross the street, and continue on a road down the hill there. After about 80 meters, Hannah yelled, "Wir haben uns verfahren!" immediately swung her bike around, I stopped my official watch, we made it back to the turn, and 80 meters down the correct road I started my watch again. After that we were far more attentive to the turns and never missed a turn again.

The scenery from 7K to 30K is wide open southern Brandenburg farm land. I felt strong running, got a 00:57:55 10K split and a 02:06:09 half marathon split. But at 25K I ran out of water, and so started to consume our fruit in Hannah's backpack to try to get some liquids, but by 33K ran out of fruit and became quite dry-mouthed as we made our way through the most beautiful part of the course, mainly running on a wide path through a forest with occasional wide-open fields, on that day wonderful sun but not too hot.

The kilometers 37K to 42K were very painful. I was thirsty as hell and my energy was gradually reaching zero. As in many marathons of yore, I switched from the mode of expecting any kind of decent time, to being consumed with the goal of just finishing the thing. But as in every marathon, 38K became 39K which became 40K after which came 41K which meant I was on my last kilometer. I stopped my watch right at where I knew I had measured 42,195 meters on Google Earth which gave me an official time of 05:17:10 but I ran the rest of the way back to the train station where I started just to complete the loop.

After finishing, I was getting alternating heat flashes and cold chills, had a number of head rags in my back pack that I put around my neck to stay warm, and was able to stand in the sun or the shade to warm up or cool off. Luckily the weather was so nice, and our train came in 10 minutes.

We got in the train, Hannah found a refreshment machine and bought me a bottle of water which I thoroughly enjoyed. Hannah fell asleep on the way back and I kept getting up to stretch my legs so they wouldn't get stiff, and soon we were in Lichterfelde Ost, bought a bottle of apple juice and Multivitaminsaft and then ran up the steps (!) to catch the S-Bahn home, which completed the Jüterbog Solo Marathon trip.

It was a very unique marathon: my first marathon I've run by myself, my slowest marathon ever, the only marathon where I have run out of water, and certainly the least expensive marathon I've ever run.

I can recommend this course to anyone who wants to run a marathon during the social-distancing regulations due to the current Covid-19 crisis. You can download this Google Earth KMZ file which you can follow in Google Earth on your phone. We had decent Internet connectivity and so were always able to locate ourselves on the route in order to know when to turn, etc. The start and finish is at Bahnhof Jüterbog which has good connections to Berlin and the complete loop is roughly measured with Google Earth at 42,498 meters, so really convenient for transportation to and from the marathon start and finish.

Although the route is quite easy to follow, you need to know where major turns are in order to look for the signs. We missed one turn between 6K and 7K, for instance, so keep an eye out for that. These are the notes I made to help me be aware of what to expect at each kilometer:

Berlin Runner

My name is Edward Tanguay, my marathon training consists of one or two runs a week, often running races with my wife or daughters, a run home from work, or an occasional long 3-5 hour run particularly during the months leading up to a marathon.